The oil industry was finishing its fourth decade when Mr. A.C. Darling drove through the streets of Petrolia in the town's first motor car. Mr. Darling, a local jeweller, seen here driving the car along the Blind Line, brought the vehicle from another Petrolian, William Bradley, who had purchased it in Chicago in 1902 for $800.
"The Pioneer", as the vehicle was known, had a top speed of fifteen miles per hour and was powered by a one-cylinder, four horsepower motor. The driver steered by a bar, rather than a wheel, and the vehicle had pneumatic tires. Apparently Mr. Darling was only able to make one trip out of town to a neighbouring community without stopping for repairs. The rest of the car's life was spent going from one blacksmith shop to another.
While the automobile steadily improved in technology and performance, it is ironic that the car's first appearance in the birthplace of the Canadian oil industry should have occurred only at the end of Petrolia's dominance of that industry.
